If Drew Doughty’s Contract Was For 5 Years, What Would You Pay Him?

So, Drew wants 5. He sure as hell doesn’t want 9 and has balked at 7. I would prefer 7. Actually, I would prefer as many UFA years taken away as possible, but we will put that on the “want but won’t get” list.

$7 million cap hit for 5 years? Stamkos got $7.5 per season ($37.5 total) for 5, right? Some look at Weber’s 1 year award as the benchmark but I wonder if Steven Stamkos (another Don Meehan client) is the measuring stick with which Newport Sports Management wishes to beat Dean Lombardi down.

Do you go there? I don’t. No way do I give Drew that kind of money or absorb a $7.5 million dollar cap hit for a short-term deal. I know why Drew would want it. It’s his ideal scenario. Big dollars followed by the potential of bigger UFA dollars. Pretty sure a deal can’t be win-lose if it is going to be compromise between two positions. Is there a win-win here?

Don’t fret too much if you hear Dean has made take it or leave it offers or the parties are at a serious impasse. Funny thing about take it or leave it offers is they can change with one phone call, one concession, or one act of good faith. Everyone, please keep your feet off the negotiation table. Nobody goes into negotiations of this magnitude for it to fail. Everyone wants a deal…there is that word want again.

You don’t get top 5 defensemen money with zero contract concessions. If he wants top dollars, then he has to give up at least 3 UFA years (like Kopitar) on a 7 year deal.

The one position the Kings are deepest at is defense. This would give Voynov, Hickey, Muzzin, etc a great opportunity. Johnson best play of the season was when Doughty was injured. Voynov with Greene could be a great pair. Martinez with Scuderi or Mitchell would be just fine.

With Murray’s system, I don’t see a huge drop off with Doughty out of the lineup. Does it hurt their Stanley Cup chances not having Drew? Of course it does, but you can’t allow a player to be above the team and hold out for the all mighty dollar.

I’m a Kings fan. That is greater than any one player. Doughty’s actions are showing a much different person than what we were led to believe him to be. Wanting more money than Kopitar on a shorter term is no bueno.

Do you still believe the $50/7 deal was offered by Dean? If so, I don’t see Dean going with $35/5 to get a deal signed. A 2 or 3 year deal would be best at this point.

Ah but Drew should be driving that bus. Meehan works for him. I find it hard to believe that Drew could not say to him “let’s get it done”. Jered Weaver just did that and his agent is Scott Boras. That’s the thing that bothers me about this whole thing. Blame get placed on Meehan and some of it should be, but Doughty needs to own some of that as well. And for a kid who says he wanted/wants to be a King, why such a long delay?

Is Drew even a passenger on this bus? If not, then Drew is being naive and is getting screwed by his counsel. Or he is really out for the money at all costs. No one knows at this point. His words are not adding up to his actions.

Look at JVR and Logan. Both signed extensions before their ELCs are even expired. JVR signed long term with a decent cap hit.

From what I’ve gathered Drew isn’t even looking at the bus schedule. He told his agents and lawyers “You guys know this end of the game better than I do, get me a fair deal and let me know when to sign.” ….. Which is good and bad. It lets Drew focus on getting in shape (which he better be) for the season, which is good. However his agent is looking for money, and we already know he’s not afraid to hold out on Lombardi. If it gets to a certain time where Drew goes “That’s it, I’m sick of it, just get it done now, whatever he last offered take it.” or not, we don’t know. At this point I expect Drew to sign before camp, but I wont be shocked if he holds out. If he does, it’s a shame and personally if I were Drew I’d fire my agent and go the way of Jack Johnson. But that’s just me.

There will be a new CBA by the time this deal expires. With the way these dollars are escalating for these kids, I can see a scenario where the cap comes back down again in the future, especially for the second deals (after entry contract). A shorter term deal is actually good for the Kings because they could pull down quite a haul from a trade in 3 or 4 years (after a cup, of course). On the other hand, Doughty should think more about a longer term deal especially if it’s around 7M per. You never know what that next CBA is going to bring.

I know the cap and contracts are two different subjects. I just meant more restrictions on the second deals. Separately, I can’t see these cap increases being sustainable regardless of the new TV deal.

And I don’t see where Drew hasn’t been in control of this since the beginning. He mentioned in the video interview a short while back that he has a figure in mind, with the implication that it is Meehan’s job to get that figure. There’s no reason to think this isn’t the case.

Personally, I think all of this is great. I love the fact that there’s finally a situation here where a Kings’ player intends to make Lombardi work to keep him. It’s been a one-way street here for too long.

If the deal if only for 5 years I think it should $30MM max. If DD wants the big money, he needs to go 7 years. One UFA year is not enough to warrant top dollar. At this point, I think they should do a 2-3 year deal and revisit the big contract then.

I wouldn’t go past $6M per year. He hasn’t led the Kings to a playoff win so his value to the “team” is questionable. Why pay the guy for potential when you have guys like Voynov and Drewiske for a lot less money. If this contract stalemate drags into the start of the season, I would trade him and get as much as possible from another team, especially prospects to cover for the guys who are leaving Manchester.

Dean Lombardi should really be pushing the Yandle side of things here. I cant think of a better comparable to Doughty both in terms of accuracy, and favorability to the Kings. Shea Weber is older and has shown much more determination and fitness consistency. Stamkos is a forward who has hit the magic number of 50 (Doughty hasn’t hit 25 or even 20, which would be the defenseman equivalents. Not even close with a career high of 16).

As I was saying though, Yandle is close to the same size as Doughty, maybe a little bigger even. Both are great skating 2way defenseman. Both are coming out of their entry level deals, Weber was coming into his third deal I think, this is just Doughty’s second. Maybe it’s Yandle’s third also Im not sure, but its definitely his first since becoming a star.

But in addition to the good comparison in play-style and basically everything else, the biggest thing is in the last two seasons, they’ve both had a good and great season. The last two seasons, Doughty has had 27 goals and 99 points and a +33 rating, and Yandle has had 23 goals, 90 points, and a +28 rating playing for a worse team. Very similar numbers, slightly in Doughty’s favor, but he’s been on a better team, and this should also be counterbalanced by the fact that Yandle went on the upswing last season and Doughty went on the downswing. It’s the order of the seasons, the what have you done for me msot recently attitude, that is always important. Yandle was considered for the Norris last season just like Doughty was two seasons ago, even though he didn’t make a nominee. And there haven’t been questions about Yandle’s fitness like there have Doughty’s. I think all these factors at the least make up for the mere 9 less points over two seasons, and +5 +/- rating. Yandle is the best current comparable for Doughty, and Lombardi should be making that case.

But, even if Lombardi makes the case that Doughty is worth as much as Yandle, that’s still not 5 million per season, because Yandle is worth more than 5 million per season. He only got 5 million and change, but he’s worth more. He got underpaid. So you make the case, you’re worth as much as Yandle, a little more even for your potential if we could count on you coming into camp in top shape every season but you haven’t proven that yet, so for now you’re worth the same as Yandle, and Yandle got underpaid by half a million or two.

So what do I give Doughty? The Kings are in a huge market. It doesn’t matter so much how much money they give him as how big the cap hit is. You cannot go 7 or over no matter what. That’s ridiculous. Give him a nice front loaded deal with whatever NMC he wants in it and all that just so long as you keep the cap hit down. If NJ can find a way to pay Kovalchuk 10 million a year for a 6.67 cap hit, then the Kings can work something out with Doughty. It’s all about cap hit.

But if you’re asking what I would give him if the money was the same every year, the people who say you can’t pay on potential, that’s just the way it’s going to be this time unfortunately. But to what extent. Doughty is going to make a lot of money, be one of the top 50 paid athletes in the NHL, a lot based on potential. What you have to make sure of is it’s not the top 5 instead of the top 50. He hasn’t earned it yet. So, of course all Kings fans would love him at 1 million, or 4 million, or 5 even…. but in terms of realistic, if you have to give up a bigger number, 6.8 is the maximum. Kopitar is an absolutely elite 2way center now. Maybe not offensively as good as the others but defensively, there’s Datsyuk, maybe Crosby, and Kopitar is with the guys right after. Doughty has not earned more than Kopitar. Even Doughty’s potential has not earned more. Kopitar is still very young, and already an elite 2-way center. He’s proven he can work on his game and perfect it and be committed to all areas, and consistency. Doughty hasn’t. There’s no way his cap hit should be higher than Kopitar’s. 6.5 million for 6 years, 6.7 for 7 years, these numbers seem fair to me. I personally believe Doughty isn’t in any positive to get more than a two year deal at 5-5.5 million at this point after last season, because when you show up out of shape you almost never get rewarded with a big long term deal afterwards, but because it’s Drew Doughty and the cap floor went up apparently that rule doesn’t apply here. So 6.5-.68 for 6-7 years is what I would give him, no more. No more than Kopitar. If Doughty wants to be “the man” in LA, and the highest paid guy, then you give him the exact same as Kopitar if you have to, and you send the message that the team belongs to both of them equally, the star center and the star defenseman, and Doughty we love you and you’re just as important as anyone on the team. At the same time you don’t send the message that you can come in out of shape and we’ll still consider you better and more important than our elite center who has been much more consistent.

I think that’s a good medium. 6.8 or below. 6.5 seems really fair under the circumstances. Maybe even 6.67 Dan Boyle’s cap hit would be very fair. He shouldn’t get much more than that. I said 6 or 7 years because you said he didnt want 9. But if u can get longer, even better. If he’s dead set on 5, that’s when you steal the 6th year and also lower the dollar amount a little to make it a shorter deal. or you go way shorter at 2 years, which is what he really should be getting now anyway, and would be getting if he weren’t such a big star after he came into camp last season.

So as long a term as you can get for no more than Kopitar under any circumstances.He is not the top dog yet, he has not earned it yet. At best you put him on the same level as Kopitar, but not above. The only way you put him above is in dollar amount, or the dollar amounts in the first few seasons (frontloading), not in cap hit, and you only do this precisely to get the cap hit down farther than 6.8 or whatever.

Kings say they’ve made “refined” offer to Drew Doughty that gives him different contract lengths to consider. Said they’re awaiting a response in a day or two. Said everything has been amicable, will have better idea of where they are when Doughty’s side responds.

Damn it! She stole my thunder for the article I was going to write tonight. Probably not worth writing it now though I have a little more information than is in her tweet. Oh well, if anyone is going to out scoop us, I would rather it be Helene. Besides, I already gave some of it away in the earlier article.

I think these sports salaries are pretty weak. I would prefer to pay the players like they pay pro golfers. You play two days, don’t make the cut, tough shit see you next week.

I’ll be more than happy to pay DD $7M+ per season IF he lives up to that potential. Why can’t they have some agreement where they will pay him a base like $5M (that’s plenty to live off of) and then a performance clause like you hit these numbers we pay you bonuses so you get you’re $7M+ a season. Don’t hit those numbers then tough shit we pay you this much over your base. How in the hell does DD, his agent or anyone else for that matter know what kinda season he’s gonna have this year? What if he’s a complete flop? What if he wins the Norris?

If every pro athlete had that kinda contract maybe competition would be a little better wouldn’t ya think? Pay for performance I say or turn into another Manny Ramirez deal where you pay the guy the world and then plays like a slug. Is DD another Manny? I doubt it but I don’t think we should pay his primadonna ass $7.5M per season.

Can someone explain the difference between a yearly salary of 6 and 7 million dollars. He’s gonna be a rich young guy anyway. Please, Drew, sign the contract. Stop listening to your agent. Look into his eyes carefully and you’ll see the $ in them. And Dean, give him exactly what Kopitar is making. The Kings need him on the roster. They need him in shape and in training camp. The Kings have a great team this year (on paper). Its gonna be an exciting season and Drew has to be a part of it. Damn it.

After a long lull in negotiations, the Kings have refined some concepts they previously discussed with representatives of restricted free-agent defenseman Drew Doughty and gave him choices for the duration of a new contract, General Manager Dean Lombardi said Tuesday.

Lombardi said he spoke Monday with Doughty’s agent, Don Meehan, and made an offer that “codifies what we’ve been talking about for a while.” Lombardi said the offer includes “different lengths for him to consider,” likely six to eight years.

“Everything’s been amicable. We’re waiting to hear back from them. They said they’d get back to us in a day or two,” Lombardi said. “So in terms of distance, I’ll probably have a better handle on that when we hear back.”

The Kings made an offer to Doughty before July 1, “but we were so far apart it never really got to the fine tuning,” Lombardi said. He wouldn’t specify a salary figure but a long-term deal could vault Doughty above center Anze Kopitar’s team-leading average annual value of $6.8 million.

6 to 8, 7 to 9, the cap hit rules the day. Lombardi’s words are uber interesting and he gave some big clues there but that is a discussion for another time. The biggest problem with these quotes (no matter who does them) is not knowing the specific question asked, the context of the question v answer and the frustrating knowledge that things were said off the record that would be the most illuminating